Lifestyles - Food

Billy's Chilies: Cool heat for the summer grill

As May rounds up and the summer heat creeps in, it's time to turn to beers that are crisp, refreshing and sensationally spicy.

Wait, what?

Calm down now; a spicy beer just might not be the worst thing you can fathom gulping down when the mercury starts to rise above 90 for days at a time. For one, you can find beers infused with chilies that are also light in color and body -- great for the summer. But the biggest plus is that chili beers can go great with foods straight off the grill: zesty chicken, peppered steak or ribs. Imagine the possibilities of a spicy brew with some fish tacos.Try not to drool on yourself, it's embarrassing.

Colorado breweries offer a few selections in this category, but the one that sticks out most is Billy's Chilies, part of the Timberline Series from Boulder's Twisted Pine Brewing Company.

The bottle advertises the five types of peppers they use in their beer (Anaheim, Fresno, Serrano, jalapeño and habanero), maybe as a warning. But if you're looking for a tongue-scraper, this ain't it.

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Billy's Chilies pours a clear, bright golden yellow, with a fine white head that tapers off into lacings on the top. It looks more like a Bud Light than a chili beer. But the smell gives the heat away, with nothing but rich, slightly sweetened peppers coming off the top. It's a lot like the smell that comes off of dried peppers at a grocery store or some homemade jalapeño cornbread.

And the taste is surprising, starting as light as it looks and finishing as rich as it smells. At 10 IBUs, there's no hops bitterness at all, and any attempt at finding malt is useless. But at the very end of the sip, right when the beer goes down, the full, rich heat comes through.

It isn't alarmingly spicy and it won't leave you coughing. It doesn't even taste like any one pepper – just heat. But it makes a presence and it sticks around. If the beer was playing volleyball in your mouth, it would bump the ball with its lightness and set it with its heat, just waiting for you to spike it with something hot off the grill.

Still, I give Billy's Chilies an 88. Without the perfect blend of peppers, this beer would be nothing – a 12 out of 100. The two main components of beer, hops and malt, are sorely lacking. But for what it is – a specialty brew that's light, hot and perfect with food – it's pretty impressive. And if the whole concept of chilies in beer sends chills down your spine, this is a safe beer to face that fear with.

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